Swytchcode is a CLI execution layer that sits between your AI agent and production APIs like OpenRouter—handling authentication, retries, idempotency, and policy control so your agent can call real APIs safely instead of failing silently.

How do I get started with Swytchcode?

Run "npx swytchcode" to install the CLI. Your first 2 live commands don't need an account; after that, run "swytchcode login". Dry runs, --explain, and demos don't count. Then run "swytchcode get openrouter" to pull the OpenRouter manifest and you're ready to call it from your agent.

How does an AI agent actually call the OpenRouter API through Swytchcode?

Your agent runs "swytchcode exec openrouter. " with arguments. Swytchcode validates the call against the OpenRouter manifest schema, attaches your stored credentials, executes the request, and returns structured JSON your agent can act on—no auth or HTTP handling lives in your agent's code.

What happens if a OpenRouter call fails, times out, or hits a rate limit?

Swytchcode assigns every OpenRouter call an idempotency key and retries it automatically on transient failures or rate limits. If your agent re-runs the same action, Swytchcode recognizes the retry and prevents duplicate writes—a raw HTTP call wouldn't give you that safety net.

Can I restrict which OpenRouter actions my agent is allowed to run?

Yes. Allow and deny rules, available on every plan, can limit which OpenRouter actions run. Approval workflows, available on Business and above, hold a matching command until someone approves or denies it in that workspace's Slack or Telegram channel. If nobody responds within 48 hours, the command doesn't run.

Where does Swytchcode store my OpenRouter credentials?

You authenticate once, and Swytchcode stores and refreshes your OpenRouter credentials server-side. Your agent—and the LLM behind it—only ever sees action names and results, never raw API keys or tokens.

Do I need to write a custom OpenRouter SDK integration for my agent?

No. "swytchcode get openrouter" pulls a pre-built, versioned manifest describing every available OpenRouter action and its parameters, so your agent calls actions by name instead of you writing and maintaining request/response glue code.

How is calling OpenRouter through Swytchcode different from calling its API directly?

A direct call means you handle token refresh, retries, error parsing, and schema drift yourself, with no guardrails on what the agent can execute. Swytchcode does all of that and checks each call against your policy rules first, so an agent can't do something with OpenRouter you didn't explicitly approve.

Do I need a specific framework to call OpenRouter?

No. Swytchcode runs as a CLI or MCP server, so any agent, IDE assistant, or script can call it. Use the LLM and framework your team prefers.

Does Swytchcode log what my agent does with OpenRouter?

Yes. Every OpenRouter call—action, arguments, result, and timestamp—is written to a full audit trail, so you can debug unexpected agent behavior or review exactly what ran in production.

Get started

API Integration

OpenRouter API for AI Agents

OpenRouter provides a unified, OpenAI-compatible routing gateway to over 400+ AI models across major providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, Mistral, DeepSeek, etc.). Beyond chat completions (/chat/completions) with tool calling, multi-modal input, reasoning controls, and automated provider fallback, the API covers embeddings, audio, batch inference (/batches), model discovery (/models), API key management (/auth/keys), activity logs, and credit tracking (/credits). Call the OpenRouter API from the agent stack you already run. Swytchcode supplies the manifest, then handles authentication, retries, idempotency, and validation on every call.

Copy paste to your AI agent

Visit official site View documentation

Provider: OpenRouter
Category: General
License: Proprietary
Manifest: openrouter
Official site: openrouter.ai
API docs: View docs

Use cases

What can you build with the OpenRouter API?

Copy a prompt for the kind of OpenRouter assistant you want. Each one includes the skills.md setup.

Catch-up assistant

Lookup assistant

Failure watcher

Status writer

Record assistant

Access advisor

Setup guide

How to connect the OpenRouter API to an AI agent

Four steps, no SDK, no boilerplate. Every OpenRouter call routed through Swytchcode is idempotency-keyed and safe to retry.

1
Install the CLI
Run "npx swytchcode" to install the Swytchcode CLI—no account required to start.
2
Pull the manifest
Run "swytchcode get openrouter" to pull the OpenRouter API manifest, including its schema and available actions.
3
Authenticate once
Provide your OpenRouter API credentials a single time. Swytchcode stores and refreshes them so your agent never handles raw secrets.
4
Call it from your agent
Run "swytchcode exec openrouter.<action> --key value" from any agent or script. No SDK, no framework lock-in.

swytchcode get openrouter
swytchcode exec openrouter.<action> --key value

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Build me an OpenRouter AI assistant

Copy the prompt into your agent. It will load Swytchcode and wire up OpenRouter.